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2009-10-27 - Hallands Nyheter Interview
Marcus Wesslén was the main character when Hallands Nyheter followed Dead by April to Tokyo for their show at Loud Park for an article/interview. It was published on October 27, 2009. The main subject of the article was the Tokyo show as well as some comments from Marcus Wesslén on Dead by April. The article is written by Lars Grimbeck. Script : The interview was done in Swedish and is therefore translated into English. 'Dead by April on a flying visit to Tokyo' 'One of Japan's biggest music festivals attracts thousands of metal fans into a giant exhibition hall in Tokyo. Among the musicians are some Hallanders like Marcus Wesslén. He has flown in eleven hours - to play for 30 minutes.' HN followed Marcus and his band when they played in front of thousands of screaming Japanese people. Exactly on time explodes the stage in a cascade of smoke and colored lights. The Japanese fans is howling wildly when the five western Swedes Dead by April plays, sings and screams. It is sweat and an uninhibited discharge. Marcus Wesslén seems to squeeze the life out of his bass. - "Unbelievable! For us it's a dream come true to play here in Tokyo", shouts guitarist Johan Olsson into the microphone. The time is only 11:00 in the morning but still has around 5000 teens and adults found there way to the festival. It's the second day of the Loud Park, "The Heaviest Metal Festival in Japan," as its slogan says. The place is Makuhari Messe, a futuristic hangar of concrete and glass just southeast of Tokyo. The local train out to festival passes by both Volvo and Ikea - but the Swedish music miracle is just as blue and yellow. Of the festival's 30 metal bands there are three Swedish. The day before the Halmstad band Arch Enemy played. Now it's time for Dead by April and Heat from Upplands Vasby, who starred in Melodifestivalen last spring. The big acts are Judas Priest and Slayer, but also the Gothenburg-based Dead by April were greated by the audience. And when the band invites the audience to crowd surf or mosh pit in front of the stage there is no doubt. In the distance the fans seems to be melting into a big wave rolling around in a soft circular motion. The Swedes play their hit "Losing You". The band's unusual blend of brutal growls and subtle clean vocals seems to work. Just what has become Dead by April's hallmark: to alternately scream and sometimes sing clean in the same song. After exactly half an hour Dead by April's gig over. The finish is a little abrupt without an encore - it is an indispensable condition of the tight program. "For each minute beyond the 30 minutes, we would have to pay 5000 crowns in damages", says Olle Persson. He is from Tvååker - but is nowadays mostly on the move as tour manager and sound engineer for Dead by April. The 30-minute show in Tokyo is so far the bands shortest and most spectacular show. "It is both tricky and awesome at the same time with such a great device for a 30-minute gig", says Olle Persson when he and Marcus Wesslén afterwards hangs out in the sunshine outside the festival area. Fly to Japan for half an hour in the spotlight is understood idiosyncratic and not environmentally defensible, but the opportunity to meet the Japanese audience live was so important that all reason had to be swept away. "You can't miss a chance like that." The band even interrupted their current UK tour to play in Tokyo. For bassist Marcus Wesslén from Veddige the hype around Dead by April is still difficult to grasp. Number one on the singles charts earlier this year, tours abroad, persistent fans ... "I guess I've gotten used to it a bit but at the same time I do not really know how others see us, how big we actually we are", he says. Ahead of the show in Tokyo, expectations were hard to put into words. Afterwards, it is the impression of the fans devotion that remains. That they seemed to have a good handle on the songs. "Damn how hot it was". The quick visit sadly provides few impressions of Japan as a country. A quick tour in Tokyo, a little after party - otherwise it was more about dealing with the time differences and eat. "We have received strange food. I tried to eat abalone shells but it was not my thing". Marcus Wesslén talks about his remarkable path in music - from the rehearsal room in Veddige to shows abroad. It all started in elementary school, with a clarinet. "After a while I did not find the clarinet tough enough so I switched to guitar, to my clarinet teachers big disappointment. I see him at home in Varberg sometimes and each time he says that it was a pity that I ended with the clarinet." Marcus is not the only musician from Veddinge at Loud Park Festival. Daniel Erlandsson, playing drums in Arch Enemy, is from Derome . So here at nearly 900 miles away , Marcus describes his Veddige with mixed feelings. "It's a shithole", he says - but adds that he might go back sometime in the distant future. But here and now it's Dead by April that apply. "As a bass player in this band I can do some more stuff. In hard rock bands the bass is more like a third guitar, but here the bass is given more space." Q: Where is the band in five years? Marcus: "Then we are hopefully one of the headline acts." Tour leader Olle Persson looks happy to. Gigs are booked until the New Years Eve. "It's a pretty quiet bunch to tour with. They are no rock stars in that sense", Olle says. Next, abrupt shifts between major and minor scenes are waiting. Now Tokyo and then continue the UK tour - then back to Sweden for a show at B & Bs in Halmstad and in Hönön, the Gothenburg archipelago. "It will be so nice to come home to Sweden", says Marcus Wesslén before he goes off signing autographs in the foyer. There, Japanese metal fans is politely waiting for their idols from exotic Sweden.